Above are members of the Bantam provincial champions. In back, from left, are coaches Ken Francis, head coach; Kim Tuffs, assistant coach and Blain Hilbig, assistant coach. Players, from left standing: Brody Gasmo, Seth Krahn, Caleb Bacon, Tylin Hilbig, Carson Sedgwick, Logan Linklater, Jocelyn Cannon, Mitchell Wozniak. Front, from left: Kohltyn Irwin, Trey Tuffs, Kiahna Dillabaugh, Dexter Francis. Manager : Kim Linklater (not in photo).
Kevin McBain
of The Clarion
The Kindersley Bantam Royals are provincial champions!
The team made the six-and-a-half hour trek to Carnduff to compete in the seven-team Bantam AA Tier 4 provincial championships on the weekend and went undefeated.
“We had a really good draw,” said Coach Ken Francis. “We played in kind of a reduced draw and everything worked out really well.
“It was a great team effort, with all 12 of our players contributing to the team offensively and defensively,” he added.
The team had just one game on Friday, one on Saturday and two playoff games on Sunday.
They opened the tournament Friday afternoon in the heat – feeling like 38C – against the Saskatoon Cardinals. The team played well and earned a 17-7 win.
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Saturday at 9 a.m., they took on the Sask Five Giants and, again, came out big, earning a 14-4 win.
This put them first in their pool, and they ended up playing the Lloydminster Twins in the semifinals Sunday morning and the team’s bats exploded for a 22-12 win.
“We were actually down 5-0 going into the bottom of the first, but we bounced back with eight runs to take the lead,” said Francis. “We played them during league and never had a problem beating them. We were a little
nervous.”
But the team came through in a big way thanks to a few long balls hit by Dexter Francis, Caleb Bacon and Kohltyn Irwin.
Kiahna Dillabaugh hit a walk-off single in the sixth to invoke the mercy rule.
Sunday afternoon for the final against Carnduff, because of the draw, all of the team’s pitchers were available including the top two: Dexter Francis and Tylin Hilbig.
The team went with the big lefty because of the left-handed laden squad from Carnduff.
Hilbig threw a complete game gem en route to a 3-1 win.
“Everything just clicked,” said Francis. “I’ve never seen it where a team had their top pitchers available for the final game.”
Although everyone made great contributions to the team, some notable performances for the weekend came from Dexter Francis who hit three home runs and went three for three in the final game and Tylin who pitched the gem in the final.
This year, the Bantams were a split squad with 24 players involved. The team was split into a provincial team and a house team before the season began. The provincial team played in a ‘mini’ league with teams from Lloydminster, Unity and Macklin.
Francis said that it was a good year all around with lots of ball being played and winning the championship was a great way to close it all off.
Peewee Royals
The Peewee Royals Mosquito Royals competed in the Mosquito AA Tier 3 provincial championships in Tisdale with 16
teams competing.
The team finished with a 1-2 record.
They defeated Meadow Lake in their final game, 11-8, but losing their first two against Weyburn and Melfort.
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© Kindersley Clarion
